The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-06-09

foreign attack should at any time De made
you would be ready, and there would be
millions Of the drilled men Of north and
south, like the men Of my first text, which
could keep rank, and like the men Of my
second text, that would not miss o hair
breadth.
At this National drill, when thirty-one
states of the Union are represented, and
between the decorations of the graves of
the southern dead, which took place few
days ago, and the decorations of the
northern dead, which shall take place to-
morrow, would stir the Christian patriot
ism and gratitude not only Of this soldiery
here present, but of all the people, by
putting before them the difference between
these times, when the soldiers of all Sec
tions meet in peace, and the times when
they meet in contest. Contrast the feeling
of sectional bitterness in 1862 with the feel
ing of sectional unity in 1887. At the first
date the south had banished the national
air. "The Star Spangled Banner, and the
north had banished the popular air of
sway Down South in Dixie" The
northern people were "mudsills" and the
southern people were "white trash" The
more southern people were killed in battle
the better the north liked it. The more
northern people we're killed in battle the
better the south liked it. For four years
the head of Abraham Lincoln or jefferson
Davis would have been worth 81, 900, 900, if
delivered on either side the line. No need
now, standing in our pulpits and platforms,
OF saying that the north and south did not
hate each other. To estimate how very
dearly they loved each other, count up the
bombshells that were hurled and the car
bines that were loaded and the cavalry
horses that were mounted, north and south
facing each other, all armed, in the attempt
to kill. The two sections u.s. only mar
shaled all their earthly hostilities, but
tried to reach up and get hold Of the sword
OF Heaven, and the prayer of the northern
and southern pulpits gave more informa-
ton to the heavens about the best mode of
settling this trouble than was ever used.
For four years both sides tried to get hold
of the Lords thunderbolts, but could not
quite reach them. At the breaking out of
the war We had not for months heard of my
dear uncle, Samuel ]. Talmage, President
of the Oglethorpe university, in Geo. gia.
He was about the grandest man | ever
knew, and as good as could be. The first
we heard of him was his opening prayer in
the Confederate Congress in Richmond,
which was reported in the New York
papers, which prayer, if answered, would,
to say the least, have left all his northern
relatives in very uncomfortable circum-
stances. The ministry at the north prayed
one way and the ministry at the south
prayed the other way. No use in hiding
the fact that the north and the south cursed
each other with whitening and all con.
suming curse.
Beside that antipathy of war time place
the complete accord of this time. Not
long ago meeting in New York was held
to raise money to build home at Rich
mond for crippled Confederate soldiers,
and was presided over BY man who lost
an arm and q leg in fighting on the northern
side, and the leg which was not lost SO
hurt that is does not amount to much.
The cotton exhibition held not long ago at
Atlanta was attended by tens Of thousands
Of northern people and by Gen. Sherman,
who was greeted with kindness, as though
they had never seen him before. At the
New Orleans exhibition, held two years
ago, every northern State was represented.
A thousand fold kindlier feeling after the
war than before the war. No more use for
Runpowder in this country, except for rife
practice or Fourth of July pyrotechnics or
O shot at roebuck in the Adirondacks.
Brigadier generals in the Southern Con-
federacy making their fortunes as lawyers
in the northern cities. Rivers of Georgia,
Alabama, and North Carolina, turning
mills of New England capitalists. The
old lions. of war, Fort Sumter and Moul-
trie and Lafayette and Pickens and Hamil-
ton, sound asleep on their iron paws, and
instead of raising money to keep enemies
out of our New York harbor, raising money
for the Bartholdi statute on Bedloes Island,
figure of liberty with uplifted torch 10 Ii At
the way to all who want to come in. In
stead of war antipathies, when you could
not cross the line between the contestants
without fighting your way with keen steel
or getting through by passes carefully
scrutinized at every step by bayonets, you
need only railroad ticket from New York
to Charleston or New Orleans to 90 clear
through, and there is no use for any weapon
sharper or stronger than a steel pen. Since
the years of time began their roll, has
there ever been in about two decades such
an overmastering antithesis as between the
war time of complete bitterness, and this
time OF complete sympathy
Contrast also the domestic life of those
times with the domestic life Of these times.
Many of you were either leaving home or
far away from it, communicating by uncer-
tain letter. What morning that was when
you left home! Father and mother crying,
sisters crying, you smiling outside but cry
ing inside. Everybody nervous and ex-
cited. Boys of the blue and Rrayl whether
you started from the banks of the Hudson,
or the Savannah, or the Androscoggin,
don't you remember the scenes at the front
door, at the rail car window, on the steam
boat landingp The huzza could not drown
out the suppressed sadness. Don't you
remember those charge, } write home
often, and take good care yourself, be
good boys, and the good-by kiss which
they thought and you thought might be
forever Then the homesickness as you
paced the river bank on starlight night
on picket duty, and the tears which YOU
wiped off when you ard group at the
singing q plantation song,I
about the old fol-, at home. The dinner
of hard tack on Thanksgiving Day, and
the Christmas without any presents, and
the long nights in the hospital, so different
from the sickness when You were at home
with mother and sister at the bedside, and
the clock in the hall, giving the exact mo- |
ment for the medicine; and that forced !
march when your legs ached, and your |
head ached, and your wounds acked, and !
more than all, your heart ached. Home !
which had in it suffocation and I,
q pang worse than death. You never got !
hardened as did the guardsman in the :
Crimean war, who heartlessly wrote home |
10 his mother:
IL do not want to see any more crying |
letters come to the Crimean from YOU. |
Those / have received I mt into INV riAa